After its 1,82% slide on Wednesday, the JSE had recouped most of its losses by midday on Thursday, boosted by a rebound on United States markets overnight.
By 12.04pm, the all share and all share industrial indices added 1,22% and 1,55% respectively. Financials firmed 1,39% and the banks index was up 1,51%.
Resources rose 0,8% and the gold mining index climbed 0,31%, but the platinum
mining index eased 0,27%.
The rand was bid at 6,60 per dollar from 6,58 when the JSE closed on Wednesday, while gold was quoted at $464,50 a troy ounce from $466,05/oz at the JSE’s last close.
“We’re having quite a strong rebound driven by the recovery in the US last night,” a dealer said. “Overall, frayed nerves had been soothed.”
He added that while they were lagging on the day, resources had steadied despite the fact commodities remained relatively soft.
“I’m surprised to see quite a strong bounce in resources. I’d have thought they would have taken longer to recover,” he commented.
On the resources index, London-listed Anglo American ticked up 49 cents to R180 and BHP Billiton jumped 2,34% or R2,14 to R93,40.
Petrochemicals group Sasol climbed 90 cents to R213,40.
Harmony Gold gained 1,18% or 79 cents to R68 and Gold Fields firmed 84 cents to R90,44.
AngloGold Ashanti, however, shed R2,31 to R271,79.
Brand management group Barloworld put in a strong showing on the all share industrial index, surging 4,28% or R4,39 to R106,99.
Swiss-listed luxury goods group Richemont rallied 1,62% or 38 cents to R23,89 and London-listed brewer SABMiller strengthened 1,4% or R1,62 to R117,14.
Mittal Steel strengthened 1,32% or 65 cents to R49,80 and pulp and paper producer Sappi leaped 2,85% or R1,78 to R64,30.
Services group Bidvest was 2,16% or R1,80 in the black at R84,95.
Cellular network operator MTN was up 3,04% or R1,40 at R47,50, having earlier traded as high as R48,95.
MTN said before the opening that it had concluded agreements with the local shareholders of the Irancell consortium to become a 49% shareholder in Irancell.
IranCell has been declared the provisional licencee for Iran’s second GSM licence.
The dealer noted that while MTN was a strong performer on the day, on the year it had lagged the market especially given the high growth nature of its sector.
While retailer Mr Price was up 1,82% or 25 cents at R14 at 12.05pm, by 12.31pm, it had extended its gains to trade at R14,30, making for a 4% gain on the day.
This was after it said in a trading update that its fully diluted earnings per share and headline earnings per share for the 26 weeks to September 24 were likely to be 50% to 60% higher than the corresponding reporting period of the previous half year.
Truworths, however, weakened 11 cents in morning trade to R18,70 and New Clicks eased five cents to R8,20.
On the financial front, life assure Sanlam soared 3,43% or 40 cents to R12,05 and Liberty Group gained 1,28% or 80 cents to R63,30.
Standard Bank was 2,45% or R1,60 stronger at R66,80, FirstRand firmed 1,27% or 19 cents to R15,10 and Nedbank was 1,49% or R1,25 in the black at R85.
Investec jumped 2,88% or R6,30 to R225. – I-Net Bridge